‘Binding resolution on Palestine next step after UK symbolic vote’

The UK parliament’s motion to recognize the Palestinian state signals a change of policy on the Middle East, Jeremy Corbyn, British Labor Party MP told RT, adding that a binding resolution should be the next step.

“It has been a long time coming that Palestinian people are under occupation, under siege in the case of Gaza or stuck in refugee camps in the case of those in Jordan and Lebanon,” Corbyn said commenting to RT on the UK parliament’s symbolic move. He said he was “delighted” when the MPs “at last…voted by the emphatic majority to support the idea, the principle of recognizing the Palestinian state.”

Corbyn says it was MPs anger over the bombing of Gaza throughout the parliamentary recess period and the numbers of people that have been mobilized in Britain to support Palestine that predetermined the vote.

In Corbyn’s view, it was public opinion that drove British lawmakers into this position and “that it is a good thing.”

Even though Monday’s resolution is non-binding, it is still significant as the move comes from an EU member shortly after Sweden made a similar step, he observed.

“Whilst I would have wanted something yesterday which made it a legally binding position that Britain recognized Palestine, I think that the message to the Government and our foreign ministry from the House of Commons is very strong and very clear. And the fact that it was supported by mainly Labor MPs yesterday including the leader of the opposition, Mr Miliband, suggests that the whole politics of the Middle East as far as Britain is concerned has changed enormously and this vote is a good step forward,” the parliament member told RT.

The next step, he said “is of course a binding resolution, the next step is of course total full diplomatic recognition and so on.”

But Palestine has already made “enormous steps” as it is a member of the UN, it is recognized by General Assembly and received at the Security Council, Corbyn added.

Dimitri Diliani from the Fatah Revolutionary Council also welcomed the vote as “very significant” and a “breakthrough.”

“It shows that there is a change in a trend as we know that not many EU countries have recognized the state of Palestine with the exception of the Swedish announcement and a couple of states that recognized the state of Palestine before they joined the EU,” he told RT.

“We are looking forward to May elections because if the Labor Party wins it is going to become a policy, it is going to become a reality,” he noted. “For us this is an historic move in the right direction, and we expect more European countries to follow suit.”

Diliani said that Palestinians “do not expect the whole world, even though it should, to shift its policies.”

In his opinion though “if the world believes in a two-state solution, and they already recognize one state, what is the reason it prohibits the recognition of the other state?”

“I ask Palestinians, we have recognized the state of Israel, why does the state of Israel not come to terms with itself and recognize the State of Palestine,” he said.

Diliani believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government “are not interested in peace and they are interested only in those that serve their internal political agenda.”

“The whole world now recognizes that the State of Israel is too much of a smaller state to play this whole region based on its internal agenda. So there has to be a pressure coming from the world, the world that has interest, vital interest in this area that is becoming endangered by the unlawful acts of the State of Israel,” he said.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.